Page 63: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2011)

November 2011www.marinelink.com 63ranging up and down by about 14-m over the year all terminals are floating and connected to the landby huge ramps. On August 22, 2011 there were four ocean going ships in port with one at anchor in theriver and three working cargo at the two floating container ports.The 186-m Hong Kong registered container ship MSC Tuscany was alongside at the Chibatão pier with three of the port?s six 45-ton container cranes working her cargo. A number of the port?s 80 trac- tors were kept busy running up the bridge to the dry land storage. This was a slow day as the 431-m of pier can simultaneously handle up to four ships withdraft between 12 and 20 m. To assist ships with docking and un-docking Porto Chibatão maintainsa pair of Cummins-powered 3200 HP tugs. Built at the ERIN Shipyard in Manaus in 2009 and 2010, the Z-drive tugs are each powered by a pair of Cum- mins KTA50-M engines producing 1600 HP at 1800 RPM. In addition to the container pier, Porto Chibatão operates a ro-ro facility for barges. This services their fleet of more than 20 pushboats withone, two or three Cummins KTA19-M3 engines each. In recognition of the long standing relationwith Cummins, Powertech Comercial, the Ama- zonas Cummins dealer, maintains a service center at the port. For a complete overview of Porto Chi- batão see: www.portochibatao.com.br WHEELS ON THE AMAZON Lowlands that can make road building difficult border the 1,495 km of river that flow between Belém and Manaus. The roads to Manaus are long and circuitous. With the world?s highest volume river flowing between the cities the movement of truck trailers typically takes place with the aid of RoRo barges. The one of the largest operators on this route is Bertolini Transport Ltda. The firm also pushes barges another 1,756 km up to Tabatinga on the Peruvian border. To meet the demands on these and a half dozen other routes, the company oper- ates a large fleet of pushboats. This includes over 20 vessels with Cummins KTA-M3 engines each producing 600 HP at 1800 RPM. A 1200 HP tow- boat, powered by a pair of KTA19s will typically push a 76 x 20.9-m barges loaded with truck trail- ers. The down-river trip takes about four days with the return up river taking about five days. Some (Haig-Brown photos of Chibatão Port and José Guilherme V courtesy of Cummins Marine) (Haig-Brown photos courtesy of Cummins Marine) Bertolini towboats and barges at Manaus. MR Nov.11 # 8 (57-64):MR Template 11/2/2011 1:47 PM Page 63